Tray excellent: More and more technology companies have caught the eco bug, installing solar panels to power their servers. Now they're turning the energy-saving eye to their corporate kitchens. (San Jose Mercury News; thanks Diana F.!)

We like (this) Big Beef and we cannot lie: R-CALF, the national cattle producer organization, recaps the beef industry in 2007 and checks the crystal ball for 2008. They're pro-COOl, anti-NAIS, and intent on keeping the consolidation that's vertically locked up the hog and chicken industries from spreading to theirs. (Cattle Network)

Bye-bye, Omega 3s; hello, Omega-6-packs: Bacterially rich biomass left over from brewing Fat Tire Amber Ale and other beer may be turned into a high-protein ingredient to nourish farm-raised fish. "You're taking what was previously a waste and turning it into fish food," says a professor, meaning it as a compliment to the project; we think the opposite. (CBS4denver.com)

Free ranging is stressful too: An Australian researcher measured corticosterone in eggs from free range (by which he appears to mean what the U.S. calls "pastured") and modern caged hens. The study showed that the levels of the hormone, which is produced in response to stress or fear, were similar in both types of eggs. (Meatpoultry.com)

ICEY-y anniversary: A year after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency raided Swift meatpacking plants and scooped up both un- and documented workers in an indiscriminate dragnet, representatives from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union are still angry, saying that immigration policy is still a mess. (Meatpoultry.com)

Which came first, the Yuppies or the piggies?: Residents of new condos in Tewksbury are unhappy to discover that a nearby longtime pig farm smells bad. The uneasy relationship between the farm and its newly arrived neighbors highlights the tension of development bumping into rural backlands. (The Boston Globe)